BBC's Doctor Who Night

Dateline: December 26, 1999

On November 13th, 1999, BBC-2
celebrated 36 years of Doctor Who, with an entire
evening devoted to the longest running science fiction show on
TV, even though it has been mostly dormant during the 1990s.
Here's a look at what was shown.

The most famous Doctor of them all, Tom Baker
(1974-1981), hosted the entire night from the heart of a vast
digitally recreated TARDIS, the Doctor's ever-present
bigger-on-the-inside-than-the-outside Police Box time machine.

Comedy sketches written and performed by Mark
Gatiss (The League of Gentlemen)
were interspersed throughout the night, the first of which was
set in the office of the controller of the BBC in 1963 where a
writer tries to pitch his idea for a new TV series about a
mysterious man who travels through time and space. Full of
in-jokes, including the supposed origin of the famous Ron Grainer
theme tune, this kicked off the evening as well as showing
(hopefully) Doctor Who fans can take a joke.

The first documentary of the night was
"Adventures In Time And Space," narrated by Peter Jones
(The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy), summing up the
Doctor's previous 36 years of existence on the telly. This was
followed by a factual documentary, "How To Live
Forever," a scientific look at physiology and how
regeneration might be possible.

The next item was "Carnival of
Monsters," not the 1973 Jon Pertwee serial of the same name,
but an index of the most famous monsters to appear on the series
with plenty of clips. Then, another Mark Gatiss sketch, which no
doubt fulfilled a lifelong dream of his, getting to play the
Doctor (clearly a fan, Gatiss has also written some Doctor
Who novels in his spare time). In this rather brief
adventure, he lands on a planet (a quarry, naturally) and has an
humorous encounter with the lamest aliens ever (even by Doctor
Who standards!).

"How To Build a TARDIS" was another
factual documentary, this one showing the scientific aspects
behind the fiction. A trailer promoting BBC-2's screening of
"Spearhead From Space" later that week was followed by
a rare showing of the final episode of "The Daleks"
from 1963, as the First Doctor (William Hartnell) seemingly
defeats his most famous foes in their first encounter (or so he
thought!).

The final Mark Gatiss sketch had two sad Doctor
Who fans, having just kidnapped Fifth Doctor Peter Davison,
trying to decide what to do with him. Davison was a good sport to
participate, particularly when one of his fans decides he wants
to kiss him in the end!

BBC-2 also rescreened the 1996 American made Doctor
Who TV movie starring Paul McGann in his only (to date)
outing as the Doctor. What was significant about this was scenes
that were originally edited out for content (the young punks
using machine guns was a bit too close to an actual incident in
Britain at the time, and the extended agony of Sylvester McCoy's
death scene) were restored, making the movie now exactly
duplicate what had been run on the FOX network in the United
States.

Fans across the world of course are hoping the
BBC will begin making Doctor Who again, so that new
adventures can be screened and enjoyed, instead of having make
due with retrospectives and reruns. Stay tuned!